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Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

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Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#111

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

vessenes wrote: post #103

A fair amount of “this is fine, governments enforce IP laws and that’s a public good” vibes in here, which is all a very reasonable perspective. I’d argue Kim was too successful and too unlikeable at the end of the day, and that was probably his downfall. Toward the end, MEGA had transitioned to actually partnering with hip hop artists for distribution. The US has a long history of IP rights holders criminalizing new…

> without cutting in the existing rights holders properly.

That's the killer, right there.

"existing rights holders" is a big deal, and one that has been ignored by tech bros for a long time.

As a [former] artist, and [former] musician, I can say that the tech industry has been cooking the Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs. The opportunity for individual financial and ego success is a huge driver for modern popular art culture (for better and for worse).

If we take that away, guess what happens?

No one wants to do it, anymore.

This may be an issue, with AI-generated creative content. Unless the AI is truly better than human talent (and "better" is in the eye of the beholder), it has the very real prospect of turning the commercial creative industry into gray goo.

[EDITED TO ADD] Watching the karma count on this post, yo-yoing up and down, has been fascinating. This seems to be an issue that people have very strong feelings about.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#112

Post by DebtDeflation »

popcalc wrote: post #96
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

File sharing is not a crime. IP holder damages should take in consideration what the actual buying power of pirates is, not just multiply downloads by dvd costs, and copyright laws need a huge reform. He's a modern day robin hood, people would prefer him to win over eg. disney... and disney is not doing itself a favour these days :)

Sharing CSAM definitely is a crime. Nuances exist. >He's a modern day robin hood He's run or partnered on multiple pump-and-dumps for the better part of 30 years, some of which capitalized on his fanbase.

One of the arguments the government used against Kim and Mega was that they implemented tech to identify and remove CSAM therefore they could have (but chose not to) do the same for material that violated copyright.

I'm not going to defend the guy because he has been involved in a number of shady dealings, but this does seem like an extraordinary amount of effort to go after a guy who ran a website that facilitated pirating of music and movies over a decade ago.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#113

Post by FpUser »

preaching5271 wrote: post #91
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's clear for everybody that one cannot get away with this kind of stuff, once governments get involved. I'm far more concerned with the stuff that governments get away with, including infringement of the freedom to share information.

Totally fair point, but what can you do? This is how the world works. Fighting such beasts is pointless. You might tame them with lobby money, but no billionaire is interested. And we're now talking about the human spirit that cannot be chained, as also seen in Pirate Bay or Snowden. Sure, people do need heroes and hope from time to time. But I have become less romantic over the years, and more careful.

[flagged]

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#114

Post by tourmalinetaco »

tedk-42 wrote: post #21

As an Aussie observer, I'm seeing more US influence in our region. With some 'diplomacy', Julian Assange was brought home after near 15 years fighting for BS extradition charges. The news and politicians in Australia follow almost lock step with whatever our US overlords allow us to say. It's been more of a thing lately with them trying to secure the pacific away from China's sphere of influence and the biggest 'dumb…

There would be less external influence in the latter case if the US wasn’t your main form of military and arms supplier.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#115

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

roenxi wrote: post #108
throwawaythekey wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of our former prime ministers, Paul Keating, came out strongly against the submarine deal. IIRC two important dimensions are that Australia has shallow waters which are not a good fit for the chosen submarine technology and that tactically it makes limited sense for Australia to focus on weapons to be used on our largest trading partner. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/15/paul-... I am not an…

They might make sense if in the long term we build out a nuclear deterrent? We'd need a handful of deep water submarines with big missiles on them. Although I expect that it'll turn out they're designed wrong for that or something. Other than that I can't see what situation they'd be useful in practice though. If we get into a war with Indonesia, China or the like that is the end. There will be no winners and we'll e…

> if a country can't defend itself with diplomacy then it is in a lot of trouble.

You are absolutely correct.

I wish more folks understood this.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#116

Post by chollida1 »

herculity275 wrote: post #33
throwaway48540 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a human. He just shared songs on the the internet. He's treated like a war criminal.

Did he get hundreds of millions in cash and dozens of luxury cars by pirating songs on the Internet?

> Did he get hundreds of millions in cash and dozens of luxury cars by pirating songs on the Internet?

Yes, the belief is that the source of his wealth was from MegaUpload and Mega.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#117

Post by manuelmoreale »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #77
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish people wouldn't cheer when criminals evade accountability.

File sharing is not a crime. IP holder damages should take in consideration what the actual buying power of pirates is, not just multiply downloads by dvd costs, and copyright laws need a huge reform. He's a modern day robin hood, people would prefer him to win over eg. disney... and disney is not doing itself a favour these days :)

Ah, the classic tale of modern Robin Hood, living in a mansion with 18 cars and 175M in cash.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#118

Post by stainablesteel »

preaching5271 wrote: post #24

I appreciate Kim Dotcom for running MegaUpload and later Mega, in a time when the internet was younger and wilder. Also for his pirate spirit and "stick it to the man" attitude. But everything has a limit, specifically his resistance against the law, even if he hid it behind virtues. I think it's clear for everybody that one cannot get away with this kind of stuff, once governments get involved. Isn't it wiser to sto…

not really, his website was based on hong kong, this is a fight against america playing world police, which i'm on board with

they have no business going after just a single man so fervently, he's a foreign national and the websites weren't based in the US

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#119

Post by GrantMoyer »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #38
snapcaster wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What other options does he have? I really wish people wouldn't cheer when smallfolk like us get crushed by the state. Not saying he's perfect, but what him and others have to suffer seems vastly out of proportion to what they did

I wish people wouldn't cheer when criminals evade accountability.

Some criminals deserved to be cheered on, such as Alexandra Elbakyan.

Re: Kim Dotcom's extradition to the U.S. given green light by New Zealand

#120

Post by curiousObject »

Kim DC is not a likeable or admirable person, but this vindictive pursuit seems even worse.

It appears very similar to the treatment of Ross Ulbricht, Assange, maybe even Snowden?

These are the equivalent of white collar crimes (typical massive frauds from the finance sector, etc) but they are getting a blue collar punishment of decades in jail that a successful and persistent street drug dealer could receive, NOT the few years in comfort camp prison that white collar frauds usually get.

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